The Book of Tears

ON THE FJORDS OF ASGARD, SERVIUS AURELIUS SANTINI CONFRONTS A HORROR FROM THE DEEPS...

...But he lost the words as his mind filled with a blinding light cast by the aquamarine brilliance of the Codex Lacrimae, and a last, fleeting vision of Clarinda -- no! It couldn't be a real image, could it? Were nixies taking her from Skíðblaðnir and back to the battle?

God, please. Where are you?

He saw the faint aquamarine glow on his braces beneath the fjord's surface.

In that sinister tome were the words that he needed at this moment. Words apparently more immediate, more powerful, and more responsive than the silent God who had cast him to this fate!

He wouldn't die here.

So be it: The Book of Revelations it is, God. Guide my arm, and let me throw down this dragon!

Then the thinking was over, and Jormungand was upon him.

Aurelius had an instant to register the shriek of Mjöllnir as he swung upward to make a last strike at the serpent.

Then his vision filled with green scales, crimson eyes, and fanged maw as the leviathan became a blur before him -- oblivion followed in a rushing gyre of flaming dragon's breath, blue-green Codex Light, and black sea water...

THE CONTINUATION OF AN EPIC FANTASY, WHERE NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS...